Shot round 4 of the Kent winter black-powder leagues with another exactly on average score of 80. This is the third card in a row with the same score.

Managed to get 5 shots inside the 9-ring, but still letting off some flyers. Again I used the previous setup with the Ballistol lube 17 recipe.

Stats
-----
Detail score: 80.0
Running average: 80.03
Barrel count: 509
Cards: 39

Next weekend it is the Trafalger Meeting down at Bisley. I am not shooting this year, but will be going to see the other Club members efforts, as well as spending some money at the trade fair. Hopefully I'll find some .354 balls!

Consistant

Today the range was VERY busy, but managed to get on my favourite firing point and shoot rounds 2 & 3 of the Kent winter black-powder leagues.

This time the group was very slightly to the right. Shot an 80.1 Again I used the previous setup with the Ballistol lube 17 recipe.

The round 3 card was also an 80.1 A much better grouping position wise, but needs tightning up. Not sure how to achieve this. Again I used the previous setup with the Ballistol lube 17 recipe.

Stats
-----
Detail score: 80.1 + 80.1
Running average: 80.03
Barrel count: 496
Cards: 38

Kent BlackPowder - Winter round 1

Arriving late at the range, I was the only person to shoot in the last detail of the morning, the other two shooters having slready started to pack up. In a bit of a rush to finish, I shot an off-center 76.0 for round 1 of the Kent winter black-powder leagues.

The group was about 3" to the left. Used the previous setup with the Ballistol lube 17 recipe.

Stats
-----
Detail score: 82.2
Running average: 80.03
Barrel count: 470
Cards: 36

I will repeat this setup on the next few competition cards.

Another practise card

Shot another practise card with the same recipe 17 lube. Very pleased with the loading and cleaning during the detail

Shot poorly though: only managed a disappointing 72 ex 100 with no v-bulls and no X's.

Opened another box of Hornady .350 balls. Only 300 still to go until I need to start casting my own .354 balls. Still trying to get a secondhand camping stove and a cast iron pan to melt the recycled lead with.

Stats
-----
Detail score: 72.0
Running average: 80.15
Barrel count: 457
Cards: 35

Lubricant found?

I think I have found my choice of patch lubricant to use in future! It's my recipe 17 - Ballistol:water 1:2. I wet the patches just before shooting the detail, then squeezed out any excess liquid. I then pull apart the damp patches and placed them, spread out, in an old percussion cap tin.

Although I dropped a couple of flyers, I started to get a good group in the center of the target, with two 'V-bulls' forming the score of 82.2 - I might need to drift the foresight slightly to the left.

Stats
-----
Detail score: 82.2
Running average: 80.39
Barrel count: 444
Cards: 34

The loading was very easy and the swabs came out dirty, but not excessively so. I think I will stay with this lube, unless someone can show me something better!

More practise...

Yet more practise with the Mortimer. Using the same setup as before:

Set-up used
--------------
Mortimer pistol in .36
0.015 patch [from JT Tanner]
6:1 olive oil:tallow lube [homemade - recipe 14]
0.350 lead balls [from Hornady]
10 grains Swiss Number 1 [from Starley]
Number 11 percussion caps [from Remington]

The result was a reasonable group, slightly to the right, but with none in the 10-ring.

83.0 ex 100

Ran in to several problems with loading. Found that the swab between shots was not clearing the soot properly; the short starter was difficult on several reloads, also the ball was not always seating fully home every time.

I am not happy with this, so will look at practising with other lubes, probably recipe "03" the Ballistol:water 1:1 mix which I noted "seems to work well, expensive though".

Stats
-----
Detail score: 83.0
Running average: 80.33
Barrel count: 431
Cards: 33

Lube testing and practise

The first card of the session was an 82.0 with no 'V' bulls. Using 10gns of Swiss No.1 with a .350 Hornady ball on top of a 0.015 patch lightly lubed with Olive Oil:Tallow 6:1. I threw a couple of flyers, but managed a fairly good group about 2" to the right.

82.0

The patches came and dirty and the balls were easy to load. Although I had problems with this lube 'splattering' last time, I kept the tin with the unused patches from last time, and just added another 50 or so patches to soak up the excess lube. This made all the difference. DO NOT OVERLUBE YOUR PATCHES!

For the second card I swapped over to 0.012 patches lubed with Water:Aqueous Creme 4:1. The patches and ball loaded a lot easier, although the patches were for a larger calibre (.45), so the excess patch around the edges did make it harder to use the short starter (the excess had to be tucked in). The result was a 77.0

77.0

The down side is that the group has opened up quite dramatically. The combination in future will be .350 ball and 0.015 patch. The only question to be decided upon is the lube to be used.

Stats
-----
Running average: 80.15
Barrel Count: 418
Cards: 32

Two more lubes tried

For round 9 of the Kent Black Powder League, I used the .350 Hornady lead balls with 0.015 Tanner patches lubed with homemade 1:1 Aqueous Creme:Water. The loading was very easy, and the swabs between shots showed that the soot was easily removed each time.

The down side though was that the patches were not being completely lubed. On most of them I noticed dry areas on the patches as they were loaded. I might try a thinner 1:4 Aqueous Creme:Water version of the lube next time.

The result was an 88.1 with three 10's scored. The group was fairly tight, although 3/4" low and 1" right. All ten scoring shots were inside the 8-ring.

For round 10, I switched to a commercial lube of Ox-Yoke Wonderlube on the 0.015 Tanner patches. I found the loading was slightly harder than with the previous lube. The final grouping was not as accurate as the R9 card though. I don't think I can blame the lube though; I'm just cannot cope with a second 30 minute detail, even after a break.

The card scored a disappointing 79.0 with some high flyers, although the horizontal grouping was very good. The swabs also came out fairly dirty each time, so I might try this again but with 0.012 patches.

Stats
-----
Detail score: 88.1 & 79.0
Running average: 80.3
Barrel count: 392
Cards: 30

Managed to keep the average above 80. As there's no more comp cards, will practise with lube development until the winter season starts.

Kent Black Powder League - Winter 2012/2013

Finally got the results of the "Kent Black Powder League - Winter 2012/2013". I actually managed to win division 2, beating Richard in the 2nd place.

I ended up scoring 107 out of a possible 120 points  and scored a competition average of 82.9

The down side is that for the "Kent Black Powder League - Summer 2013" competition I have been promoted to division 1 (along with Richard and two others from the club!).



Water:Ballistol 1:1 lube

For round 8 I shot the card using the homemade 1:1 Ballistol:Water lube. This resulted in a 77.1 ex 100 being scored.

Round 8



The group appears to be a lot bigger than round 7, but the loading was a lot easier. Both the short starter and the long starter were very easy to use and the ball seated fully every time.

This time the lube was applied at the range. I made up a small batch of 1:1 Ballistol:Water lube in a plastic container, then when at the range, I placed 13 patches in an old .22 ammo box and added enough lube to fully wet them. They were then seperated out ready for use.

1:1 Ballistol:Water lube swabs

Although I though it was was issue at first, the swabs (again after 5, 9 and 13 shots), were dirtier than the round 7 Wonderlube patches. What it actually means is that after each shot the soot is remaining soft and being easily removed by the swab, hence the ball seating easily every time.

It might mean that I need to try a slightly higher powder load to see if the groups tightens back up when using this lube. I might also try the Wonderlube again but using a thinner patch such as 0.012 or 0.010

Stats
-----
Detail score: 77.1
Running average: 80.06

Barrel count: 366
Cards: 28

Managed to get the average back over 80!

Ox-Yoke Wonderlube 1000+

Shot round 7 of the Kent Black Powder League using the normal setup with 0.015 patches lubed with "Ox-Yoke Wonderlube 1000+". Very pleased to shoot an 89.1 ex 100.

Round 7

As a PB, managed to get 4 scoring shots in the 10 ring. Called both of the high flyers. As you can see, the group though was fairly good, but I did notice some loading difficulties.

On at least three of the shots, the loading with the long starter showed that the ball was not seating fully down the barrel. It was only a matter of millimetres, but it was noticeable. I put this down to the 'soot' being 'harder' than expected and not being fully cleaned by the swabbing out between shots.

Swabs

These were the swabs after 5, 9 and 13 shots. They are sooty but not excessively so. This may be the compromise lube to be used in future. I might try the same lube but with a thinner patch, perhaps 0.012 or even 0.010

Stats
-----
Detail score: 89.1
Barrel count: 353

Cards: 27





Urgent action needed

Another terrible shoot confirmed the need to resolve the issue with the lube recipe currently being used. Another shooter on the range confirmed that I am 'smoking' more than I used to. The patches being used to swab the barrels between shots are very after dirty after only two shots. I even tried swabbing out first with a mop damp with WD-40, before swabbing with a plain patch. No difference was noticed. I also wiped off the excess lube from the patches.

Kent round 6 - only the good shots!

The plan for the next shoot is as follows:

1. Geoff has given me some of his 'Ox-Yoke Wonderlube 1000+'. I have prepared some 0.015 patches with this lube.
2. Don has given me some thinner 0.012 patches to try. I'll prepare these with a 1:1 Aqueous cream:Water lube.
3. I have some 0.010 patches that I'll prepare with a 1:1 Aqueous cream:Water lube.
4. I have some 0.005 patches that I'll prepare with a 1:1 Aqueous cream:Water lube.

So the next shoot will be using lube step 1 - I will keep the first swab after 4 shots cleaned to see what they look like. I will also try to collect shot patches to see if they are retaining their shape or are being cut.

Stats
-----
Detail score: 67.1
Running average: 79.83
Barrel count: 340
Cards: 26

Very disappointing to drop the average below 80. MUST TRY HARDER !!!

Much tighter group.

Kent Black Powder League card for round 5 gave one of the tightest groups I have ever shot. It was also fairly well placed on the target. It seems that with practise, I have finally sorted out a consistant sight picture. The group is almost horizontally central on the card, having drifted the foresight slightly to the left after the last shoot.

Round 5 - 87.1 ex 100

The low shots were due to me holding on aim too long and then starting to get tired. I need to either shoot within a few seconds of coming up on aim, or drop the arm, rest and then re-aim.

The main set-up changes from the last session were in the lube and percussion caps used. I took recipe 13 and made it thinner: recipe '14' was 6:1 Olive oil:Tallow. This did seem to cleaner easier between shots, but the patch was getting dirty fairly quickly and you could see 'flakes' rather than soot. I suspect it is the hydrocarbon in the olive oil burning off. I also changed the percussion caps from CCI number 11's, to Remington number 11's. No difference seen between them.

Set-up used

--------------

Mortimer pistol in .36
0.015 patch [from JT Tanner]
6:1 olive oil:tallow lube [homemade - recipe 14]
0.350 lead balls [from Hornady]
9 grains Swiss Number 1 [from Starley]
Number 11 percussion caps [from Remington]

I did notice that the thinner patch lube meant that when I seated the ball in the end of the barrel with the mallet, it tended to splatter olive oil, making everything greasy to handle. I might add a small shaving of beeswax to thicken up the lube slightly.

Stats

-----

Detail score: 87.1

Running average: 80.34

Barrel count: 327

Cards: 25

On the plus side, I did find an easier way to store the lubed patches that made handling them on the firing point easier - I now use an empty air-pellet tin. It's an ideal size for about 100 lubed patches.

Time to save some money

Having just got back from a work-party day at the local Club range, managed to combine tidying up the black-powder butts with some money saving! Took along a sieve and a small trowel. Once I located the impact point on the butt sand for the five firing points, I got to work. After any stones were removed, and any plants/grass uprooted, I started to dig down to about 6 inches, sieving every time the sieve was full. After two hours, the five butt locations had been cleared, dug, sieved, refilled and reprofiled, I had a bucket of bullet heads and lead balls:

Bucket o'lead



Once suitably washed and then completely dried, the heads and balls will be melted down, fluxed and then poured in to ingot moulds [I'll be using a 9-hole deep-fill muffin tray]. Then when I need to, I'll remelt the lead ingots, flux the melt again, then use a dipper ladle and my Lee .354 mould to cast some lead balls for the Mortimer.

A poor day's shooting

Started off the day planning to shoot 2 cards, but ended up shooting 3 cards, rather badly. Card 2 of the Kent Black Powder summer season league was a 82 ex 100.

Round 2 - 82 ex 100



The entire group was about an inch to the left. Swabbing between shots, the patches were quite dirty. The shooting setup used was:

Mortimer pistol in .36

0.015 patch [from JT Tanner]

2:1 olive oil:tallow lube [homemade]

0.350 lead balls [from Hornady]

9 grains Swiss Number 1 [from Starley]

Number 11 percussion caps {from CCI]

For the second card [round 3], I switched to Ox-Yoke pre-lubed patches. Again the entire group was to the left. This time it was nearer 2 inches, and also about an inch high. The card scored as a 77 ex 100.

At this point I SHOULD have stopped as I was getting tired eyes and a sore lower back. Due to time constraints and range availability, I pushed on and did a third card. This round 4 card scored a very disappointing 68 ex 100. The group was even further left and even higher.

Using the same setup as the previous card, I found problems with the loading this time around. With the long rammer, I found it wasn't seating the ball as far down the barrel as it should have done. It needed several more 'rams' to get to seated correctly.

Half way through the card, stopped to clean out the barrel with WD-40, a nylon brush and several cleaning swaps. OK afterwards for several shots, but then the same issues again.

After the session, found that during the cleaning, the nipple felt 'stickier', the barrel by the nipple was dirtier than usual, and the residue from the bottom of the barrel was 'flaky pieces' rather than the usual fine soot.

Next time out I'll do the following:

# shoot a maximum of two cards in any single session

# try Remington number 11 percussion caps instead of CCI

# try Dynamit Nobel 1075 percussion caps instead of CCI

# use the aqueous creme and water mix patch lubricant

Stats
-----
Running average: 80.06

Detail score 82.0 + 77.0 + 68.0
Barrel count: 314

Cards: 24

Scoring graph

Here's a graph of my scores to date:

The best result to date is card 16 with a 90.1 scored. The average is currently hovering around the 80 mark. Hopefully scores will continue to improve with practise, which is why I am doing some 10m target air-pistol shooting at home.

Practise session

Although rather cold on the outdoor range, shot card number 21 with the Mortimer. Used the old lube 12 setup [2:1 Olive oil:Tallow] and noticed the patches had stiffened up in the cold temperatures. Found that the ball had rolled off of the patch several times when reaching for the short-starter. 

Card 21

Although the elevation grouping was OK, I pushed most of the shots high left, mainly through inattention on my part. Ended up with a single 10 and a score of 77 with no X's.

Stats

-----

Running average: 80.69

Detail score 77.0

Barrel count: 275

Cards: 21

 

 

Lube recipe 13 might be OK

After three weeks waiting, I have just checked the state of lube recipe 13 [Tallow:Olive Oil - 1:4]. It has stayed as a thick liquid rather than setting hard as lube recipe 12 did [Tallow:Olive Oil - 1:2].

Lube recipe 13

The next step is to lube up some fresh patches with this mix, I'll also relube the recipe 12 patches [waste not-want not]. As it looks like there should be no issues with seating the ball on the patch at the end of the barrel, the only other checks are how the barrel swabs between shots, and how easy it is to clean at the end of the day's shoot, using just hot water and a drop of liquid soap.

If all goes well I will not have to create other recipes with the Beeswax, Lanolin, Neat's Foot Oil, Olive Oil, Tallow, Ballistol etc that I still have!

Revised lube

My original lube [12]; Tallow:Olive Oil in a 1:2 ratio, that I used last shoot, had some problems with the stiffness of the lubed patches and the difficulty separating them.

Lube 12

I've now amended the lube recipe to create lube [13]; Tallow:Olive Oil in a 1:4 ratio. After 20 seconds nuking in the microwave, the old lube was melted and the additional Olive Oil was added.

Lube 13

Although liquid after the nuking, we'll see how it looks after 24 hours of cooling down. I have also lubed up some new 0.015 Jeff Taylor patches with the new recipe, and also relubed those lube 12 patches left over from the last shoot.

The other reason for further developing this recipe was due to the ease of cleaning that I found after the last shoot. Using just hot water and a patch on a nylon brush, the soot from the barrel was gone within seconds. No hard scrubbing needed!

Different lube used

For today's trip to the range, I used lube mixture 12 - Tallow:Olive Oil in ratio 1:2. This mixture sets to a fairly soft solid, but stiffens up on the patches. I found I could not seat the ball in the top of the muzzle without the lubed patch pushing it back out. Also noticed that the patches were hard to separate from each other. On the other hand, cleaning afterwards was VERY fast with hardly any soot to come out of the bottom of the barrel. Recommended lube mix!

Highest 10 count

Although only shooting an 87.0 I did shoot my best ever 10 count with 3 scoring shots. The two fliers in the white were due to me snatching the trigger after being on aim for too long.

The group is slight too low again but I think this is correctable with lots of practise. The rest of the setup for this card was 9gns Swiss No.1, 0.015 JT patches and Hornady .350 balls.

Stats

-----

Running average: 80.88
Detail score 87.0

Barrel count: 262

Cards: 20

New lubes

Off to the range in a few hours to try out some new patch lube recipes:

[12] a thinner recipe than previously tried; Tallow:Olive Oil in a 1:2 ratio. The previous version had the ratio reversed and the patches were really too stiff to use after a week.

[9] using a Beeswax:Olive Oil mix in a 1:2 ratio. The beeswax thickens up the olive oil such that the mixture solidifies after cooling. Depending on results, I may loosens up this recipe by using a lower ratio of beeswax to olive oil, perhaps 1:5.

[6] a multimix recipe of Beeswax:Lanolin:Neatsfoot Oil in a 2:1:2 ratio. This is basically the above recipe [9] with the addition of Lanolin. Again this mixture solidifies after cooling and I may try a thinner version with more oil added.

We'll see how it goes!

Best group ever

Shot a single card at the range today, with only one change in the setup. Instead of the usual 9gns of Krank's FFFg, I used 9gns of Swiss No.1 powder. This powder is slightly higher weight/lower volume, is slightly more grey in colour, and has white flecks in it.

For the rest, I used the usual setup of Hornady .350 lead balls, Jeff Tanner 0.015 patches lubed with a 1:3 Ballistol:water mix. Swabbed out after each shot. Managed a couple of non-scoring flyers.

Best group

The low shot at 5 o/c scored out as a 6 under MLAGB rules [not 50% over the line]. Also got the results of round 5 of the Kent Black Powder Leagues. I am in division 2 and surprisingly in 2nd place, behind another Club member; Richard.

Stats

--------

Detail score: 77.1

PB: 90.1

Barrel count: 249

Cards: 19

Running average: 78.9

I also checked the 2:1 Tallow:Olive Oil lube I made last week. The mix has solidified, as have the lubed patches. I will change the mix to a 2:3 Tallow:Olive Oil to thin it up.

I will shoot the same setup on the next range visit, just to confirm if Swiss No.1 powder is giving me better grouping with my powder/ball/patch combination.

Range prep

Getting ready for the next range visit:

# Mixed up a batch of new patch lube - used tallow and olive oil in a 1:2 ratio. Melted the tallow over a low heat and then added the olive oil. The lube soaked in to the patches very easily, but after a few days, the patches have stiffened. Depending on the results, I might loosen up the mixture by adding some more olive oil.

# Loaded up 13 phials with 9gns of Swiss No.1 powder. Noticed that this powder is a lighter grey colour rather than the black of Kranks FFFg, and it also has white flecks in it. This powder is twice the price [~£65 kilo] of Kranks FFFg [~£17 1/2 kilo], so it would have to give a big improvement in the results obtained to justify itself.

# Cut up a flannelette sheet to provide hundreds of 4by2 cleaning patches. A lot cheaper than buying very expensive rolls of 2by4 on eBay.

New balls please!

Having run out of my supply of .354 Pedersoli lead balls, today's two cards were the start of testing new combinations based upon .350 Hornady lead balls. This means that I have had to increase my patch size from 0.010 to 0.015 to maintain the same overall size within 'one thou' [0.364 to 0.365].

First card - 79 x 0

The first thing I noticed with the group is that it's about two inches low in the 8 ring and slightly left. The set up used was the usual 9gns of Krank's FFFg and number 11 percussion caps, but with a .350 ball seated on a 0.015 patch lubed with Ox-Yoke [pre-lubed]. The initial seating of the ball was slightly easier, as the thicker patch compresses in to the rifling easier than when the thicker ball is used.

During the shooting of the card, I swabbed out after every shot. Below are the swabs after 3 shots, 8 shots, and at the end after 13 shots.

Swabs



Wrapped around a nylon bristle brush, you can see the amount of 'soot' that accumulates in the barrel after each shot.

For the second card, I used the same set-up but this time the patching was changed. The 0.015 plain patches were from Jeff Tanner and I lubed them with a mix of Ballistol and water in the ratio 1:3. When you add the water to the Ballistol you get a thin emulsion. Patches of dry patches were then dunked in the mix, turned 180 degrees, dunked again, and then squeezed to remove the excess. The patches were then stored in a sealable plastic bag.

Second card - 85 x 2

 

The second card gave a new personal best with 2 X-rings shots. Still slightly low but better centred. To confirm, the set up was 9gns of Kranks FFFg and number 11 percussion caps and a .350 ball seated on a 0.015 patch lubed with Ballistol/water mix.

Stats

 

Detail scores: 79.0 & 85.2

Average: 80.7

Personal best: 90.1

Barrel count: 235

Cards: 18

One thing that did become apparent is the the .36 calibre dry patches are slightly smaller than I'm used to. They need to be very accurately centred over the end of the barrel in order for the rifling to be properly engaged all around the ball. They are also a looser weave so tend to shed threads.

Next time I'll look to repeat the set up with different lubes. Currently I have lanolin, tallow, beeswax, Ballistol and aqueous cream to play with.